Summer cleaning
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
I hesitate to update this blog more regularly because I worry about writing about mundane subjects. While I enjoy my work, and my responsibilities are increasing, I imagine reading about these changes is far less interesting than experiencing them. While I have fruits to show for my labor (check out the cover to the September Iran issue from The Voice of the Martyrs), my day-to-day workload isn’t interesting enough to share about here.
After my family kindly lugged down all my stuff from Michigan to Oklahoma, and I spent days setting it all up in the house, my family ended up reading a portion of Ephesians that really changed my outlook on my material goods. The portion is the following:
11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:11-22 [biblegateway.org]
The concept of being an example of Christ wasn’t new to me, nor was the idea that Christians were “temples” of God. The way this passage was written gave me a slightly different perspective, but one that was different enough to get my attention.
This passage really hit me, because I knew I was becoming far too focused on buying silly material goods instead of focusing on more important things. I saw that how I was presenting myself to the passerby might not be what would be the most Christ-like. Someone asked me once if I framed my life around movies, since I often talked about them. While the comment was intended as a humorous joke, and my discussion about movies was due to a lack of other available topics, it got me thinking about my priorities.
For years I have been troubled about my interest in science fiction in particular, because of its frequent insistence that God doesn’t exist. There are many instances in episodes of Star Trek where the story and characters seek to disprove the existence of God, not including the aliens featured in nearly every episode. In the past I’ve wondered how I could allow myself to become so engaged in the lore and world of science fiction series when the entire existence of the series is regularly hinged upon the lack of any kind of deity, nevermind God.
As I mentioned, this doubt isn’t new to me: for years now I’ve felt it nagging me in the back of my head, but it wasn’t until this passage that I made a decision.
I’ve sold off some of my movies, some of my video games, and am preparing to sell a lot of my books. I really wish I had come across this passage earlier, since it would have spared my family all the trouble of bringing this stuff down to me. I hope to repay them somehow for their kindness, because I feel terrible for causing this sort of trouble.
I am still saving up for a trip to South Korea, although that process is moving slower than I hoped. I am excited to see how much I’ll save now that I’ve rethought my position on entertainment, since I fear I spent far too much on small purchases like DVDs just for the sake of being able to buy something. Perhaps someday soon I’ll be able to buy some lenses for my camera that I’ve wanted to purchase for over a year.
In another fashion of keeping this temple of God in proper condition, I’ve been working out with a personal trainer for the past couple of weeks. I won a contest at a local bank, where I won ten free sessions with a personal trainer who lives in the neighborhood (this event and my photo were featured in the local newspaper, too). After about two weeks of exercise, I feel stronger and everything feels tighter. I’m excited to see the attitude of treating exercise as less of a burden and more of a daily routine starting to take hold, and I hope that attitude continues beyond the ten free sessions.
Today’s Image is the rear entrance to a local business in Bartlesville. I treated it with various layer effects to bring out the intended emotion I saw when I snapped the photo. I’ve been having interesting talks with an coworker at The Voice of the Martyrs over what constitutes “reality” these days. While photo editing has been done for as long as photography has existed, image editors like Adobe® Photoshop® (cough) allow for editing to be done to a greater degree.
Considering simply choosing a different type of film in the past, or choosing a particular sensor in the present can change the look of a photo, it would seem to me that there is a considerable uncertainty on what is “real” in photography. There are obvious realism-breaking tools that one can use, but even a sharpening filter can make drastic changes to a photo. There doesn’t seem to be a line that can be drawn, outside of using in-camera settings only. However, choosing to use in-camera settings only does limit what can be done with a photo, especially when post-processing effects like dodging and burning have been performed on film pictures for decades.
My personal stance is that as long as the facts of a photo remain intact, editing a photo to evoke a mood is acceptable for most applications. Outside of the purely editorial, wherein only extremely basic editing may be done for the sake of clarifying the object(s) in the picture, I don’t see much reason to hesitate to use any and every tool available. Even so, if one wishes to get truly nitpicky, even those kinds of photos aren’t truly “reality”.
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Transporting your belongings cost us no trouble. So, take that idea outta your head.